Craven, Pamlico, Jones students perform below state average

Published: Tuesday, November 12, 2013 at 06:43 PM.

Student proficiency test scores made public this past week show the work needed to meet new standards is a rigorous challenge for students and staff.

Results were released by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and are still being analyzed by area school systems. The state performance composite score showed an average 44.7 percent of students statewide met new standards. District wide, that average was 43.7 percent for Craven County Schools, 42.2 percent for Pamlico County Schools, and 34 percent for Jones County Schools.

The results are based on school year 2012-13 standardized tests in reading and math taken at the end of grades 3 through 8 and science for 5th and 8th graders, and end of course tests for high school students.

Craven County parents received a letter from Superintendent Lane Mills last week in their student children’s report cards which warned the results were coming wouldn’t seem good if they compared them to previous years.

“All these scores reflect a baseline and starting point for all the school systems,” Mills said in an interview. “To compare them to what we did before is not accurate.”

Pamlico County Schools Superintendent Wanda Dawson said, “Whenever new standards are set, test score results indicate an initial drop. This is an ordinary trend. North Carolina has experienced decreases in proficiency levels when new standards have been set at least twice before in the last two decades.”

A state Department of Public Instruction analyses showed percentage proficiency scores of students statewide dropped from 30 to 40 percentage points.

Student proficiency test scores made public this past week show the work needed to meet new standards is a rigorous challenge for students and staff.

Results were released by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and are still being analyzed by area school systems. The state performance composite score showed an average 44.7 percent of students statewide met new standards. District wide, that average was 43.7 percent for Craven County Schools, 42.2 percent for Pamlico County Schools, and 34 percent for Jones County Schools.

The results are based on school year 2012-13 standardized tests in reading and math taken at the end of grades 3 through 8 and science for 5th and 8th graders, and end of course tests for high school students.

Craven County parents received a letter from Superintendent Lane Mills last week in their student children’s report cards which warned the results were coming wouldn’t seem good if they compared them to previous years.

“All these scores reflect a baseline and starting point for all the school systems,” Mills said in an interview. “To compare them to what we did before is not accurate.”

Pamlico County Schools Superintendent Wanda Dawson said, “Whenever new standards are set, test score results indicate an initial drop. This is an ordinary trend. North Carolina has experienced decreases in proficiency levels when new standards have been set at least twice before in the last two decades.”

A state Department of Public Instruction analyses showed percentage proficiency scores of students statewide dropped from 30 to 40 percentage points.

Jones County Schools Superintendent Michael Bracy said he was pleased and not surprised with the district’s results, which he called “on par” with those statewide and “will become a new baseline for us to track our progress as a school district.”

“We need to start from these scores and move forward,” he said, although actual performance composite scores at some schools which did not meet growth expectations were actually higher than some which did and 12 of the 25 Craven schools tested at above the state level.

Parents of most of the about 14,500 students in Craven County Schools from the 3rd to 12th grades will be receiving individualized student reports on Dec. 5 that explains their child’s strengths and weaknesses based on the tests.

Craven County Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Annette Brown said, “parents need to keep in mind that this is just one indicator of their child’s performance.”

“We are celebrating our position,” she said. “Our regional rankings were awesome. We know we have work to do but our placement is something we’re pleased with.”

“Rigor is one of our challenges,” Brown said. “Our training will be focused on rigor and perseverance in the next semester.”

The new tests measure competency in the new Common Core Curriculum which she said, “rather than more work, will be a different kind of work. It will challenge students in reading more complex texts do more with discovering numbers before finding answers, and respond to complex questions.”

Brown said teachers started training for the new teaching focus three years ago and continue to have additional planning time, focus groups, school training, curriculum coaches and all kinds of support in the fields for the different approach to education.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress also released test results Thursday and those results show no change in North Carolina student performance on national reading and math tests from those in the 2011-12 school year.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.